Ninety Percent of Everything

The first edition of U-BOOT Lab’s international call, aimed at collectives of artists under 35 as part of the Ninety Percent of Everything project, has been extended until 12 April. The Association, active in Genoa since 2012, offers the selected collective(s) a residency inside Palazzo Ducale Genova, within the Port and at sea, fostering new ecologies of global consumption.

The initiative investigates the impact of maritime logistics on the climate crisis, exploring the port as a relational device connecting trade flows, ecological balances, and social and geopolitical dynamics.

The project is developed by U-BOOT Lab in collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Ducale Genova, with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, within the framework of “Starter – Cultura e creatività per la sfida ambientale”.

The call is open to collectives of artists under 35, national and/or international, working in the fields of sound and visual practices, either already formally established or newly formed for the purpose of the call.Two collectives will be selected, each composed of up to three artists, focusing respectively on sound and data art, or, alternatively, one interdisciplinary collective for a total of six artists. Each collective will receive a grant of €4,000, or €8,000 in the case of a single collective of six. Individual artists may apply by forming a collective within the specified limits.

 The Open Call jury is composed of representatives of the promoting institutions and is chaired by Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of Palazzo Ducale Genova.

The artistic residency will take place in Genoa from May 15 to May 30, 2026. Workspaces are distributed between Palazzo Ducale and the experimental marine station of CNR-IAS, located within the port and made available through the collaboration with Francesca Garaventa. In parallel, a navigation period is planned aboard operational cargo vessels of the Grendi Group. Selected artists will have access to the port and its logistical infrastructures and will live in close contact with the crews, participating in daily life on board. Through the collection of technical, sonic and visual data, they will investigate the impact of maritime transport on the climate crisis and transform the acquired information into sound and visual landscapes. The residency is led by Stellare (Genoa–Turin), a factory of producers and musicians, and by data artist Tiziana Alocci (London), curated by Maria Pina Usai / U-BOOT Lab – Zones Portuaires, with scientific support from Francesca Garaventa / CNR-IAS. The residency is further accompanied by a systemic design pathway curated by Itinerari Paralleli, structuring the working process through a relational and laboratory-based approach inspired by the principles of the New European Bauhaus. The outcomes of the residency will converge into an multichannel installation at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa starting in September. The public presentation of the project will also include a public programme featuring three moments of collective sharing: a performance within the port, a bilingual final publication, and a video documentary gathering interdisciplinary contributions on the themes addressed.

The project is conceived as an intensive pathway of situated research and training, intertwining artistic practice, scientific research and direct community engagement to foster critical reflection towards new ecologies of global consumption and stimulate practices of active citizenship. In this framework, the port becomes a privileged site for examining the relationships between economy and sustainability, globalisation and environmental vulnerability, climate crisis and consumerism. As Maria Pina Usai, curator and initiator of the project, states: “Ninety Percent of Everything emerged from the ten-year experience developed through Zones Portuaires, a festival in Genoa that evolved into a research platform, opening the port to the city not only as an operational infrastructure but as a public space with which the city identifies — a space where relationships and conflicts shape the directions of social, political, cultural and ecological debate. The title references the book of the same name by British journalist Rose George, which reveals how maritime transport — the invisible engine of around 90% of everyday goods — profoundly structures our culture of consumption and, consequently, our impact on the planet. Building on these premises, the project investigates the link between maritime logistics and the climate crisis, understood in its systemic dimension as the outcome of interconnections between trade flows, ecological balances, economic interests and social and geopolitical dynamics.” Within this perspective, the port emerges as a device of connection and exchange, as a symbol of contemporary complexity — a space of tension between the consumerist logic underpinning the global economy and the growing urgency of the climate crisis, which demands a radical rethinking of these mechanisms.

Genoa, with its millenary port and role as a crossroads of international routes, represents the generative and privileged context of this research. The project also extends to two additional strategic Mediterranean port cities: Cagliari and Marseille. After its inauguration in Genoa, the outcomes will be presented at the Grendi Terminal of the Port of Cagliari, and subsequently at L’Embarcadère in the Vieux Port of Marseille, within the partnership with the Observatoire des publics et des pratiques de la culture MESRI/AMU. The fourth host city is London, in collaboration with The Heath Studio.